Girl without a heart

In anticipation of transplantation, an American lived without a heart for six months for as many as 118 days, 14-year-old American Dazhan Simmons from the city of Clinton (South Carolina) lived without a heart in her chest, Fox News TV channel reports. All this time, the girl was connected to a huge artificial apparatus, which supported her life, and could not do not only walk, but even breathe.

In the spring of this year, Dijana Simmons was diagnosed with a progressive increase in heart chambers, due to which the heart could not provide normal blood circulation. The reason for this increase is not reported, however, the girl is sick with cardiomyopathy. Dijana was sent to the Kholtsa children's hospital in Miami (Florida), where she was transplanted by her heart.

However, a massive thrombus formed in the transplanted organ, which threatened the life of the girl, and the heart was removed two days after the operation. To support the blood circulation of Dijana, the surgeons designed a temporary artificial heart made of special fabric connected to two pumps the size of a medium copy apparatus. In anticipation of a new heart, the girl was connected to him for 118 days.

For several months she could not breathe on her own, she suffered acute renal and hepatic deficiency and gastric bleeding. According to the girl, she felt at that time a "fake man."

On October 29, when the state of the American stabilized, a new heart was transplanted a second time. At present, she can walk on her own, and at the end of the last week she was discharged from the hospital. Doctors evaluate the risks for the need for re-transplantation of up to 30 years of 50%.

11/24/2008 / Irina Vlasova